Prevalence and characteristics of headache in Dutch schoolchildren

The aim of this study was to determine whether there has been an increase i n headache prevalence in Dutch children and to compare headache characteris tics of children with low, medium and high headache severity. A sample of 2358 schoolchildren between the ages of 10 and 17 years filled out Waters' Headache Questionnaire and the Paediatric Pain Assessment Tool. Results showed that 21% of the boys and 26% of the girls at elementary sch ool, and 14% of the boys and 28% of the girls at high school reported weekl y headaches. When compared to figures from a previous study in the Netherla nds published in 1985, the prevalence of weekly headaches in 10-17-year-old s has increased by 6%. In boys at elementary school, the prevalence of head aches with a frequency of a few times a week has doubled. Children with low, medium and high headache severity differed with respect to all headache characteristics, i.e. pain quality, accompanying symptoms, warning signals, location, onset, impact of headache, family occurrence, pe rceived cause, medical consultation, and school absence. (C) 2001 European Federation of chapters of the International Association for the Study of Pa in.